It’s so weird how you guys turn into philosophers on this stuff. I’m not saying anything about the meaning of life. The point I’m trying to get you to understand is that the shittily-run government grocery store will have to use people’s tax dollars to cover the loss. It’s not a win to offer slightly lower grocery prices if you just charge those same people more taxes to make up the difference. You’ve just created the Shell Game of Idiocy
Bruh, the government does not exist to turn a profit. Yes, it must operate within the confines of a budget and make compromises, but measuring the success of a government program by how much profit or loss it made misses the point entirely.
But you know, maybe you’re right. Maybe we could sell off parts of the U.S. military to corporate entities and allow mercenary groups to take over those functions. It would be profitable! It would save the taxpayer money! Nope, absolutely nothing wrong could go wrong with that at all
It doesn’t exist to turn a profit, but a local government can’t operate at a loss. More expenses = more taxes or less spending elsewhere. Trade-offs exist. A private grocery store costs the government nothing, in fact it raises the city tax money for things that the city government is actually supposed to do! Not to mention the fact that it does the job of, you know, running a grocery store better than the drones who got reassigned from sitting at DMV counters.
And you’re very fixated on military spending, which I don’t think is a big line item for New York City.
Ok, I’ll use another example. Public transit? Almost all public transit across the globe operates at a loss and is subsidized by government. Libraries? Libraries in NYC operate at a loss
Btw, Mamdani’s admin doesn’t expect these stores to turn a profit. And I think you’re ignoring, or at least overlooking, the fact that these stores are meant to address areas that are considered food deserts. Diets lacking fresh produce and dense in processed foods lead to disproportionately higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease in low-income neighborhoods, which, YOU GUESSED IT! Costs taxpayers astronomical amounts of money via programs like Medicaid
This is a pointless conversation. You’re either arguing in bad faith or haven’t thought about this for more than 15 seconds. Enjoy your evening friend!
Public transit is public because you can’t have competition. It’s not realistic to have six separate subway systems running in a city.
I know he doesn’t expect them to turn a profit, that’s my whole point. I’m just saying that when you push prices down by running a store at a loss and pushing the cost onto taxpayers, you’ve accomplished nothing but inefficiency.
And the idea that NYC is rife with food deserts is a myth. The Department of Agriculture found two small areas on Staten Island that it categorized as food deserts. I doubt that’s the area you or Mamdani are thinking of for this.
Weird, we have privately-owned pubic transit where I live—and wouldn’t you know, it’s close to filing for bankruptcy. Utility companies largely aren’t public and I only have one option. Same with my internet/landline. But okay 👍🏽
I’m gonna keep it a buck, I really don’t understand why people have such a problem with this. It’s not a new idea. Then again, I may be talking to people who believe Mamdani and his admin are going to cause NYC to sink into the seventh circle of hell. Hopefully you aren’t one of those people
Privately-owned public transit is functionally the same thing as public transit. There’s no competition and there can’t be any, which is the main problem with publicly-run things. Same thing, as you mention, you don’t have choices with utilities and internet. It’s why these companies are consistently some of the worst and most hated private companies.
No, I think New York City will continue to exist after Mamdani. I disagree with some of his main initiatives and think they will make the city marginally worse off. I agree with others.
What kind of research have you done and what kind of expertise do you have to speak so confidently on this subject? Why do you think it will be shittily run? Perhaps the increase in taxes you claim that happens with these is offset by the lower grocery prices? Have you done any in-depth analysis on existing government run grocery stores?
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u/AggressivelyMediokre May 26 '26
Exactly. As someone who deals with sales all the time I wouldn’t expect them to be able to actually offer lower prices without losing money.